Guide to Writing an iCarly Fanfiction
by chasingafterstarlight
Summary: Helpful hints on how to write an iCarly fanfic. Hopefully some humor, with a bit of Seddie/Creddie/Sibby/Cam/Cibby in it!
1. Chapter 1

**Guide to Writing an iCarly Fic**

You wanna write an iCarly fic? Well, you've come to the right place! There's some basic foundations I'll lay down first.

First, one that we all have trouble with: keeping the characters IC (In- Character) and not OOC (Out of Character). This means that instead of inventing your own personalities, you keep in line with the characters on the show. This can make a fic much more enjoyable (and you'll get more good reviews)!

**Sam Puckett is:**

**A bully**

**Aggressive**

**Funny**

**Nice, but hardly ever**

**Obsessed with food**

**Insulting**

**Street smart**

**Sam Puckett is not:**

**A pansy**

**A sap**

**Girly**

**Nice, sweet**

**Kind, caring**

Which means if you write a story like this:

_ "Oh my gosh!" Sam exclaimed, a hand to her lips. "I love you so much, Freddie! I love the way your hair catches the light!"_

_ A bully came out of nowhere and hit Freddie. Sam rushed to his side. "Oh, Freddie! I love you so much! You have to fight back because I can't fight at all! You're so strong, Freddie!"_

Yeah, that's an OOC Sam. A much more IC Sam would be like this:

_"Yo, Freddork," Sam walked up and flicked Freddie's head._

_ "Ouch!" Freddie rubbed his neck. "What was that? That hurt, Sam!"_

_ "Your point is?" Sam shrugged. "I just got annoyed with you."_

_ Freddie glared. "What did I do to you?"_

_ "You were born," Sam stated dryly_

That's a much more IC Sam. However, it's a bit extreme, and if you're wanting an IC Seddie fic this might not work well. Try this:

_"Hey, dorkosaurus," Sam greeted the boy._

_ Freddie rolled his eyes. "You'd think that once we started going out, you'd stop trying to create stupid nicknames for me."_

_ "Not happening," Sam sung. "Take me for smoothies after school?"_

_ "I'm buying, aren't I?" Freddie groaned._

_ "When are you not?" Sam grinned cheekily._

**Freddie Benson is:**

**A dork**

**A nerd**

**In the A/V club**

**A boy that tries to be funny**

**Smart**

**Nice, caring**

**Freddie Benson is **_**not: **_

**A bad boy**

**A total jerk**

**Stupid**

**Funny**

**A good liar**

**Tough **

All right, I know about the popularity of badboy Freddie stories on this website. However, they can grow tiring after a while, so why don't we try to keep Freddie as his nerdy self? I mean, I tried it, but eventually he went back to canon Freddie. I can't keep him bad, everyone knows we can't pull it off.

Here's an OOC Freddie:

_"Hey, guys," Freddie walked into school one day, flashing his new grill._

_ Carly's eyes lit up. "Wow, Freddie, you're so __**bad.**__"_

_ "I know, right?" Freddie put his hands on his hips._

_ A random guy came up and shoved Freddie. "Hey, dork, wanna fight?"_

_ "I'm not a dork anymore," Freddie calmly announced. "I'm a bad boy. Watch." He put his fist up and punched him square in the face. He then flexed his muscle._

_ Carly grinned. "Wow, Freddie, you're so BAD! Can I feel your muscle?"_

_ Flexing his muscle again, Freddie smirked. "Yeah, I am, aren't I?"_

Not trying to pick fun at Creddie stories or anything, so here's an IC Creddie:

_Staring at the ground, Freddie began. "Carly, I just wanted to let you know that, even though I broke up with you and everything, I kinda….I kinda still like you."_

_ "Yeah," Carly nodded._

_ "Well?" Freddie raised an eyebrow._

_ "Yeah, I like you too," Carly looked annoyed. _

_ Freddie turned red. "You still like me?"_

_ "Yeah, I know, I like the dorky technical producer," Carly giggled._

_ "Hey!" Freddie protested. "Don't be vicious!"_

Sorry if it's not too good, I'm not terrific at Creddie.

**Carly Shay is:**

**Nice/ Kind to EVERYONE**

**Fashionable**

**The center of attention**

**Friends with everyone/popular**

**A bit selfish at times**

**Funny (some of the time)**

**Smart, but sometimes clueless**

**Carly Shay is not:**

**Mean**

**Weird**

**Antisocial**

**Scheming/ conniving**

**Entirely stupid**

**Totally selfless**

**PERFECT!**

Here's an example from a typical, evil Carly Seddie/Creddie war fic:

_"Hey, Sam," Carly said into her pink cellphone. "I've decided to dump you."_

_ "What? Why?" Sam cried, tears running down her innocent face._

_ Carly's mouth twisted into a sadistic smirk. "I've realized you weren't good enough for me and my awesomeness. I've decided it's better to be popular."_

_ "But I thought we were friends!" Sam wailed._

_ Carly rolled her perfect brown eyes. "Why would you think that? You're just a loser."_

_ "No!" Sam sobbed._

_ Carly hesitated a second, then said, "Oh, I'm taking Freddie too!"  
"NO! HE LOVES ME!" Sam screeched._

_ "Nope," Carly's plump pink lips smiled. "We're dating now. Have a nice life, Samantha Puckett."_

All right, now let's try one with Carly a bit more IC.

_"Guys!" Carly broke into Sam and Freddie's fight. "Guys, can't you stop fighting for just a minute?"_

_ Sam and Freddie glanced at each other. "Nope."_

_ Carly whined, "Sam! Freddie! Can't you guys just stop? I have a special friend coming over!"_

_ "She started it!" They exclaimed in unison._

_ "Hey!" Freddie glared at Sam._

_ Carly shook her head. "And I'm ending it. It takes two to tango!"_

_ Bursting into laughter at her horrible humor, Sam and Freddie grinned at each other. Carly just scowled at the two of them. "What, you don't like my lingo?"_

_ Sam and Freddie both laughed again._

Yeah, I like a bit crazier Carly. But she's still pretty much IC

I'm too lazy to do the rest of the characters, but I'm sure you know how Spencer is and Gibby also. If you don't, look them up online or something. Or watch the episodes again, that usually works.

Second, SPELLING and GRAMMAR.

I don't mind if you have a few typos, they don't take away from the meaning. However, if your story is like the following example, it can get annoying.

Check it out:

_One lasy day in Seatle, there is a girl name Sam who is friend with a boy named Freddy. But they're mutwal frand Carly is not happy that they be friend so she try to break them up. But in the end they stick togethor and eventully have a happy ever after! And Carly is not happy, so she will recroot Gibby to brake them up. Gibby doesnt like Carly a lot tho so he decide to be a spie! _

_Then Carly get mad and throw him out._

_Bye bye, Gibby!_

_Spencer is not doing anithing interesting._

Terrific, right? Wouldn't this be a better summary if it looked like this:

_One lazy day in Seattle, there was a girl named Sam who was friends with a boy named Freddie. But their mutual friend Carly was not happy that they were friends so she tried to break them up. In the end, they stuck together and eventually had their happily ever after! But Carly was not happy, so she recruited Gibby to break them up. Gibby didn't like Carly a lot though, so he decided to be a spy. When Carly found out, she got mad and threw him out._

_Bye, bye, Gibby!  
Spencer was not doing anything interesting._

Much better, right? Another pet peeve of mine is using text/IM lingo in a story. Save it for the chat rooms, people! Example? I'll make one up!

_I watched iCarly 2day and I found out that there r 3 kids- Sam, Freddie & Carly. They r 2gether 4 filming iCarly._

_I decided 2 support Seddie! So here's my fan fic._

_Sam wuz in the kitchen, getting some juice. Freddie walked in. "Yo, Sam, 2day u wanna get some Coke?"_

"_Not with u, nub," Sam growled._

_Freddie was like, "O no u didnt!"_

_Sam grinned. "O yes I did!"_

_It was like a fight! "Wht made u think I wanna go w/ u?"_

"_U asked me!" Sam retorted._

Fun, right? isn't this better?

_Carly was in the kitchen, getting some juice. Freddie walked in. "Hey, Carls, what's up?"_

"_Having some fun," Carly did a little dance. "Making some cupcakes."_

"_Fun," Freddie nodded._

_Grinning, Carly asked, "Where's Sam?"_

_Freddie shrugged. "How should I know?"_

Third, there's the issue of capitalization.

Seriously, go back to elementary if you didn't learn the rules of capitalization! You should always capitalize proper nouns and beginnings of sentences, not to mention there are many more rules. I understand if you have a certain writing style, but otherwise, it's just annoying. For example:

_One day sam and Freddie and carly lived in seattle but then it was hot. so they were all crammed in a little room. _

"_Turn on the heat," sam said._

"_Yeah, i'm hot," Freddie complained._

_Carly rolled her eyes. "you'll survive."_

"_i will not," sam groaned. "I'm so hot."_

_A random boy dashed in and smiled at her. "yes, you are."_

Funny plot, but the capitalization thing is annoying, no? Here it is, fixed!

_One day, Sam, Freddie and Carly lived in Seattle, but then it was hot. So they were all crammed in a little room._

"_Turn on the heat," Sam said._

"_Yeah, I'm hot," Freddie complained._

_Carly rolled her eyes. "You'll survive."_

"_I will not," Sam groaned. "I'm so hot."_

_A random boy dashed in and smiled at her. "Yes, you are."_

Better, isn't it? Easier to read too!

One thing that will almost always cause you to get flames is lack of punctuation! Whether it be from run-on sentences, lack of commas, or no periods at the end of sentences, it's stupid. I mean, I can get it if it's your style, but just leaving them out for no reason? Uncool. Here's an example:

_Yo Sam said Freddie._

_Dorks should not say yo said Sam_

_Why not asked Freddie_

_Sam rolled her eyes You're obviously too dorky to see why not_

_Carly and Gibby and YOU say it Freddie contradicted_

_Sam nodded But I don't butt in there because we're not dorks Well except Gibby_

_Chuckling Freddie replied Yeah I know_

Ugh. Super hard to read, right? Well, let me fix it for you.

"_Yo, Sam," said Freddie._

"_Dorks should not say yo," said Sam._

"_Why not?" asked Freddie._

_Sam rolled her eyes. "You're obviously too dorky to see why not."_

"_Carly, Gibby and YOU say it," Freddie contradicted._

_Sam nodded. "But I don't butt in there because we're not dorks. Well, except Gibby."_

_Chuckling, Freddie replied, "Yeah, I know."_

All right, enough with my punctuation/grammar/spelling talk. Let's move on to something more interesting, another common flame you'll get. The dreaded cliché. I'm gonna go through my area of expertise first, Seddie.

After reading many Seddie fanfics, here are the common Seddie clichés:

**Sam leaves. She may get a new job, become an actress or become mad at Freddie for some reason. Then she comes back and something has changed.**

**Sam and Freddie act in a romantic play, preferably something by Shakespeare.**

**Freddie notices Sam leaving after iSpeed Date.**

**Sam and Freddie are/have been secretly dating.**

**Someone is betting on Sam and Freddie getting together.**

**Sam and Freddie remember the kiss then try it again.**

**Sam and Freddie fake date.**

**Sam helps Freddie become a bad boy/ Freddie becomes a bad boy and Sam falls in love with him.**

**They meet over the Internet or at a masquerade then fall in love. However, they don't know it's the other person.**

**They must work together on an important project.**

**Sam's mom abuses her and Freddie rescues her.**

I could go on and on. However, as you'll see, I've tackled many of these clichés, such as the one where Sam leaves, the one where Freddie notices Sam leaving, and the one where they are secretly leaving. But, if you follow the cliché exactly, you'll be getting flames. You have to add a twist to keep people interested. I'd hope that my stories managed that. If you try something new and original, you may end up getting more reviews.

I'm not much of an expert on Creddie or Cam clichés, but I'll do my best:

**Freddie dates Sam/ another girl, and Carly realizes she is jealous.**

**Carly wakes up one day and randomly realizes she loves Freddie.**

**Carly has to do a play/romantic thing with Freddie and realizes she's in love with him.**

**Freddie expresses his love for Carly and she finally gives him a chance.**

**Carly and Freddie resume their iSYL romantic relationship.**

**Cam**

**Sam realizes she isn't straight.**

**Sam/ Carly start feeling 'sparks' when they touch.**

**Sam/ Carly discover 'hidden feelings' that they'd passed up as friendship.**

**Carly questions why she's still friends with Sam.**

**Sam questions why she's jealous of Carly/Freddie.**

I'm sure you guys have better ones, so send them to me.

Another thing to avoid in any circumstance is total romantic sappiness. I mean, cuteness is fine. There's a line between sappiness and cuteness.

This could be the difference between these two ficlets:

"_Hey, Sam, I really love you," Gibby muttered._

"_Me too!" Sam kissed him on the lips for a long time. "I love you more than ham."_

"_I love you more than being shirtless," Gibby gasped._

_Sam smiled. "I love you so much."  
"All I wanna do is be with you," Gibby agreed. _

"_Oh, me too," Sam sighed._

Now, for me at least, that's too much of an overdose of Sibby. They're also OOC. How about we tone it down a bit?

"_Sam," Gibby blushed as he looked down. "Can I tell you something?"_

_Sam flicked his arm. "Whaddya want, Gibson?"_

"_I love you…" He began. Seeing the glare in Sam's eye, he quickly finished with, "More than not wearing a shirt."_

_Sam raised an eyebrow. "That's a lot."_

"_Don't you have something to say back?" Gibby nudged her._

"_All right," Sam sighed. "I love you more than ham."_

See, cute but not in an overdose.

Also, while some dark fics are good, others can be totally terrible or disturbing. Let's keep in mind the central themes of the show- randomness and humor. Often times, these can be the most popular stories. Not that I'm telling you not to write angst! I love angst every once in a while. But this is not the central theme of iCarly. And definitely don't overdo it, sometimes character suicide can be really scary.

Also, watch almost all of the episodes before you begin to write! Sometimes, in the episode you watch the characters are not as developed as later on in the series. Also, you might have missed a major moment with character(s).

Like if you just watched _iPilot:_

"_Hey, Carly," Freddie flashed his crush a huge grin. "I'm here to do some tech stuff."_

"_Or to spy on me?" Carly wondered._

"_Yeah, that too," Freddie clapped a hand over his mouth. "Oops."_

_Sam, who was sitting at the counter, rolled her eyes. "What is that doing here?"_

"_I have to work on tech stuff," Freddie retorted, glaring furiously at her._

"_**I have to work on tech stuff,**__" Sam mimicked. "Gimme a break. More like you gotta work on __**dork **__stuff."_

Well, not too much has changed.

So, whaddya think?

Remember, I'm not here to say my fics are perfect or anything, they're definitely not! And I'm not here to criticize/flame any story! I just wanted to give some helpful advice to those starting out. And I hope some of the mess-ups made you laugh. Also, I'm definitely up for a sequel if anyone wants it. I'd love any ideas/suggestions you guys have.

Oh, and sorry for the lack of Cam/Cibby! I'm not entirely sure how to write Cam, considering I don't ever write femslash. I do love Cibby to death so next chap will be better! And sorry about the Seddie being the ship I used most, I do love me some Seddie. Also if you don't like romantic fanfics, I did add some friendship excerpts in there XD

Leave a review and tell me what you think!


	2. Cliche Fic

_Cliché Fic_

**Think you've read a terrible, cliché Seddie fic? Well, this one beats all.**

"Oh my gosh, Carly!" gushed Sam as she sorted through the dresses.

"That dress is totally perfect, Sam!" Carly grinned at Sam's hot pink dress.

Sam nodded, screeching a girly screech. "I'm gonna look so, so pretty!"

"And then Freddie will drool over you," Carly promised.

"Wait, I don't like Freddie," Sam thought for a second. "Never mind, I totally do! I hope he'll think I'm so, so pretty and drool over me!"

"But he won't know who you are, Sam," Carly reminded her. "We're in disguise."

"Ooh!" Sam squealed. "Even better. Then he won't know who I am, even though you can see my blue eyes that, according to most, are recognizable _anywhere _and my blonde curls and even though I'll be the same height because I'll wear Converse instead of heels, of course-"

"Shush!" hushed a giggling Carly. "You're not supposed to make the story look bad. He just will be stupid enough to not know who you are, right? And he won't even try to look for me, even though he's 'supposedly' in love with me, because he has true feelings for you, he just doesn't know it yet."

"All right, enough already!" Sam exclaimed. "Just skip to the ballroom scene."

"Even though we don't know where the school got a ballroom," Carly added. "Oh, well, next scene!"

**Scene 2: Ballroom (which is who knows where) (Oh, and by the way, it's a random change to present tense. Don't know why)**

Sam walks in, and everyone's eyes are on her, because they apparently don't have anywhere better to look. Even though usually at school dances, it's dark and no one sees people come in. Unless they are stalkers.

Freddie, who's supposedly the hottest guy in the school now even though on _iCarly _he's just a tech dork, flexes his newfound hot boy muscles. "Yo, who is that?" he whispers to Gibby.

"I don't know," Gibby replies. "I mean, she looks awfully familiar, a lot like that girl I see everyday with the blonde curls and blue eyes. Only a bit of the area around her eyes is covered up, but no, no idea…."

However, Freddie immediately recognizes Carly. But he doesn't feel any jealousy when he sees her dancing with some other guy. _OH MY GOSH…why am I not jealous? She's dancing with another guy, why am I not jealous? I should be jealous. Does this mean I don't like Carly? I don't like Carly, all right. Now, next in this five minute thinking session, I have to figure out who I like. Sam. Cool, I now like Sam, even though it took me less than five minutes and nothing special to realize this. Nice, I'm over Carly and I've now moved onto Sam._

Meanwhile, Gibby peers into Freddie's eyes, and realizes he's zoned out. So even though Carly is dancing with the other guy, he goes, steals her away, and probably goes and makes out with her in a bathroom stall or something. But who cares about them anyway? This story is about Freddie and Sam.

So Sam sees Freddie and thinks something like _He's really cute, _without realizing that he looks a lot like Freddie. Then she goes and gets some punch. He sees her, recognizes her as the pretty girl that made the cool entrance, so he goes and asks her to dance.

Of course she accepts, and of course like some _Another Cinderella Story knockoff, _they are both amazingly terrific dancer.

So they pirouette (which is usually for girls, but Freddie's apparently now more feminine), and they do some tap moves, and they do the salsa. And the boring people who still don't have anything better to do stop and watch them.

Now they share a tender kiss. It has lots of sparks though. At the end, Sam realizes that Carly's limo is coming so she just randomly dashes out. She doesn't care much about Freddie's feelings. Then like some sick and twisted Cinderella, she leaves something of hers there.

"OMG!" exclaims Freddie, though he would never say this in the show. "I SO HAVE TO FIND THIS GIRL! OMG I HOPE IT'S SAM…NO I DON'T…YES, I DO! But even though I want it to be Sam, I will probably check her last, just to add drama. Even though it's not really drama….but oh well, who cares?"

**Scene 3: Searching (which isn't a place, but who cares?)**

So then 'Prince' Freddie goes around looking for his 'Princess'. Meanwhile, Sam's sitting at home, sulking, because apparently fearless Sam is too scared to tell Freddie that it was her at the dance. And Carly's doing…who knows what?

When Freddie goes to Carly's, she acts like she's some weird stepsister person and tries to pretend the object is hers (even though she has brown, not blonde hair, and looks _nothing _like the mystery girl). Freddie almost believes her but then uses logic to figure out it's not her. So he leaves a pouting Carly to continue searching.

He runs into Valerie, Melanie, Shannon and pretty much every single girl he's ever dated/ shown interest in on the way. But of course, they're all pretty much still in love with him, because of course there are no better guys for them, and there's _still _nothing better for them to do than sit around and pine over him. But Freddie's so sure he's in love with Sam that he turns them all down (but if he's so sure he's in love with Sam, why is he even searching for this mystery girl? We all know how disappointed he'll be if it's not Sam, so what's the point? The world may never know).

Then, finally, he picks up his stupid butt and hightails it over to Sam's. She's sulking in her room still. She is probably listening to depressing music because she still has nothing better to do (and still no one ever does anything interesting). He asks, "Is this yours?"

***CLIFFHANGER/ A/N: OMG IS IT HERS? I know you all know but still***

Sam looks at him and says, "Yeah. It's mine."

His eyes go so wide because he never suspected it. "It's YOURS?"

"You hate me, don't you? OMG I never should have thought you would like me! Of course you wouldn't, you're still in love with Carly! AHHHH!" Sam begins to cry.

Freddie begins to rub her back, then gets a tissue to dry her tears. Sam gets snot all over his new sweater but Freddie doesn't care. "I'm _so _not in love with Carly."

"Well, who are you in love with? And why do you have my item of clothing?" Suddenly, it hits her (FINALLY!). "OMG you're that guy from the dance! And OMG I say OMG way too much but who cares? You danced with me and we kissed so we're totally in love now, right?"

"I love you," he says with so much emotion.

"I love you, too! And I _so _didn't see that coming!" She squeals and giggles. She then jumps on top of him and starts kissing him. "Wow, Freddie, I always thought you were a dork but now I see you're really perfect!"

"And through all the emotional abuse I found out you're so cool!" Freddie sighs. "Wow, this is such a happy ending that I'm going to start crying."

"We finally get our happy ending," Sam sobs, and then kisses Freddie again and again.

**REAL A/N: Gosh, that was horrible. YAY! Hope it made you laugh even a little.**

**I still ship Seddie, don't worry!**

**NOTE: This is not going against Seddie Cinderella fics in general in any way. Some are really good and I love them! However, this is going against all terrible, cliché fics. And I realize that some of mine are cliché…**ㅠㅠ but it's ok!

Well anyway, review! Please?

Would you guys want next chap to be a Creddie, Cam, Cibby, Sibby... which ship do you want me to parody? And which cliché? I'm not the best at clichés from these pairings.

Review!


End file.
